Since my trip to the mainland, I’ve been mulling over my impressions of Shanghai and Beijing, and how they compare to the closest thing to a big city Taiwan has- Taibei. Before my vacation, I had a really distorted view of what the mainland was like. Living in Taiwan, I haven’t really had access to much mainland media, and everything in the papers here is pretty negative. Anyway, this is what saw in Shanghai:

Shanghai

When I first arrived in Shanghai, I was pretty underwhelmed. Other than the simplified characters all over the place, and seeing more tall people on the subway carriages than I’m used to, it seemed pretty much like a big version of Taibei. While cheaper restaurants, i.e. road stands, were much cheaper that those in Taibei, upscale places cost a bit more. The Shanghai version of Häagen-Dazs was particularly over the top. Fortunately, Taiwan’s insane beer prices haven’t caught on. In general, drinks in Shanghai cost from quarter to a third of what they do in Taibei.

There were quite a few nice things in Shanghai, other than the prices. One big one was the sidewalks. Usually, in Taibei, sidewalks are narrow, cluttered with illegally parked scooters, and built at a different height in front of each building. In Shanghai, they were level, wide, and uncluttered. Walking was a joy. Another nice thing was the fact that people seemed to expect me to speak in Chinese and to do so as a default. The very one thing that frustrates me most in Taiwan is how often locals try to speak English to me… even if I initiate the conversation in Chinese. All in all, the people I met in Shanghai were fairly friendly, albeit focused on money. The selection of dining, both Chinese and western, in Shanghai was also far better than anything I’ve seen in Taiwan. They had authentic foods from every province, great western restaurants, like Papa John’s, and even a decent Mexican restaurant. Rounding out the good stuff I noticed, Shanghai’s much more bicycle friendly.

On the down side, taxi’s are much harder to find. Another thing is that while ATMs are plentiful, they’re far from ubiquitous, like they are all over Taiwan. Instead of having one in every convenience shop, I actually had to go into the ATMs outside banks, or in nice malls. The very worst thing about Shanghai is that the subway commuters had all the patients and rationality of 5 year-old crack addicts. Despite the very prominent signs saying 先下后上, people rarely observe any train ettiquette. If they want on a train, they shove whoever the heck is in their way and push as hard as they can to force their way on, regardless of how many people on the train are still trying to get off.

Random Observation: Shanghai’s huge! With a population of 20 million, it’s comparable to all of Taiwan.

Comments

> All in all, the people I met in Shanghai were fairly friendly, albeit focused on money.

I’m curious in what ways you felt they were focused on money. I’ve heard this observation from many people about Shanghainese, but I haven’t really seen it myself, at least not as a general trait.

One of my favorite games in the subway is “knock the holy shit out of the first guy coming through the door.” Especially when it’s a big guy that’s expecting nobody to even attempt to resist. Most Chinese are shorter than I am, so they’ve got some center of gravity advantage, but mostly they’re not prepared for someone willing to fight back. 🙂

v

August 11th, 2006 at 1:24 AM

Sorry, this is off topic, but I was just wondering why you chose the title “Doubting to shuo” for your blog. Beyond the literal ‘doubting to speak’, which is sort of weird, can the title be split up: dou b ting to shuo as in ‘dou ting bu dong, dao xian zai hui shuo wei zhi’. I’m probably reading to much into this. neng bu neng jie shi yi xia. duo xie 🙂

I guess I got that impression from the way people talked and what they talked about. A lot of times when I meet Taiwanese people, they’ll talk about politics (esp. cab drivers), news, or something like that. Probably due to my job, a lot also talk about the public education system and cultural issues. I also met quite a few people in Beijing who were interested in politics, education, and cultural issues.

Shanghaiers I met didn’t seem interested in politics, public education or cultural issues unless they were directly related to their job prospects (i.e., how to improve their English test scores). Instead, people I met talked to me about business. Even a lot of the foreigners I met in Shanghai seemed to have very little interest in history, literature, the humanities, or the arts.

I was only in Shanghai for a week, though, so don’t put too much stock in what I thought. It was just my first impression.

Jason S

August 13th, 2006 at 10:25 AM

About the name: Haha, I’ve been reading your blog for a long time and never read the word “doubting” as the English word. I thought it was variation the Chinese…woah. Anyway, I agree with a lot of what you said about Shanghai. On a superficial level, not much politics, especially compared to Beijing.

[…] The Shanghai Metro (subway) commuters are infamous for their “enthusiasm.” The subway philosophy of 先下后上 (let people off first, then board) is blasted repeatedly during rush hour by station attendants each and every day, but it always falls on deaf ears as the hoarde surges to board the subway cars the split second the doors open, forcing the passengers who wish to disembark to shove and claw their ways through the subway doorway battlefield. It really is insane, and it shocks most newcomers to Shanghai. […]

Greg

January 15th, 2007 at 6:22 PM

Shanghai people in general is indifferent to politics. But they would not miss any chance of doing business. Quite some Shanghai young girls would place ads on foreign newspapers looking for old wealthy man to marry with (I have seen ads specifically mentioning they are looking for wealthy man over 80 years old). I guess they are betting their fortunes on the quick death of their husband. In fact, many Shanghai people would treat foreigners better than their own countryman as long as those foreigners are richer than they are.

On the other hand, Shanghai people are more open to the external world and they have great business sense. They work hard, focusing on any financial gain they can get. So usually they are very good business man. The disadvantage is that their tolerance of “short term loss” is very low so sometimes they refuse to invest in anything that has high risks.